Dictionary:
In·di·an·a (ĭn'dē-ăn'ə)  (Abbr. IN
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A state of the north-central United States. It was admitted as the 19th state in 1816. The area was controlled by France until 1763 and by Great Britain until 1783. The Indiana Territory was formed in 1800. Indianapolis is the capital and the largest city. Population: 6,350,000.
Indianan In'di·an'an or In'di·an'i·an adj. & n.
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Indiana, often called "the crossroads of America," was a center of commerce even before the arrival of European explorers in the 1670s. Bounded on the north by Lake Michigan and on the south by the Ohio River, the state's several important rivers and portages made it a strategic military location as well. The dominant Indian tribe in the region, the Miamis, lived throughout the state from the early 1600s. They were joined by bands of Shawnee and Delaware Indians in the southern part of the state and by groups of Delaware, Potawatomi, Piankashaw, and Wea in the north. By 1700, the Miamis had settled in several villages throughout the region, including large villages at Kekionga (present-day Fort Wayne), Ouiatanon (near present-day Lafayette), Vincennes, and Vermillion. In 1679, led by the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the first Europeans reached the region. Eager to establish outposts for the fur trade, the French laid claim to the area and erected military forts at Kekionga (known as Fort Miami, possibly as early as the late 1680s and permanently after 1704), Ouiatanon (1719), and Vincennes (1732). Although they had survived primarily as an agricultural people, the tribes eagerly entered into the fur trade, especially after epidemics from smallpox, measles, and other diseases decimated their numbers and made farming more difficult. By the 1750s, only about 2,000 Indians of various tribes survived in the region.
During the French and Indian War, French claims over the territory were ceded to the British, a concession ratified by the Treaty of Paris on 10 February 1763. British rule over the region was brief, however. In 1778 and 1779, during the American Revolution, forces led by George Rogers Clark controlled the area after capturing Vincennes. After the Revolution, the United States took possession of the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River in another Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783. The United States reorganized the region under the Ordinance of 1787, recognizing it as the Northwest Territory the following year. In July 1800, the region was divided into an eastern section that later became the state of Ohio and a western section that extended to the Mississippi River on the west and up to Canada in the north. Known as the Indiana Territory, a name that reflected it as "the land of the Indians," the territory later was divided even further to create the Michigan Territory (January 1805) and the Illinois Territory (February 1809). Thus, by 1809, the boundaries of present-day Indiana were secure.
Beginning with the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded a portion of eastern Indiana to the United States, federal authorities gradually purchased land from various Indian tribes through the 1830s. The governor of the territory, William Henry Harrison, signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809 with the Delawares, Potawatomis, and Miamis, adding the southern third of the territory to federal reserves; other agreements, including the Treaty of St. Mary's (1818) and the Treaty of Wabash (1826), completed the transfer of land from Indian hands. In the meantime, however, major conflicts occurred, most notably with Harrison's victory over Indian forces led by Tenskwatawa (also known as the Prophet) at Tippecanoe in 1811. During the War of 1812, British and Indian forces combined to fight American troops throughout the territory. The last major battle was between Miami and American forces and took place on the Mississinewa River on 17 and 18 December 1812; the battle concluded with the Miamis' defeat.
Early Statehood
With the opening of U.S. land offices at Vincennes (1804), Jeffersonville (1807), Terre Haute (1817), and Brookville (1819), almost 2.5 million acres of Indiana land were sold to speculators and settlers through 1820. Later, additional offices opened at Fort Wayne (1822), Craw-fordsville (1823), and La Porte (1833). With the territory's population reaching 24,520 in 1810, agitation for state-hood gained momentum, and on 11 December 1816, Indiana was admitted to the Union as the nineteenth state. The location of its first capital, Corydon, in south-central Indiana reflected the fact that the overwhelming majority of the state's population resided close to its border with the Ohio River. On 7 June 1820, the capital was relocated to Indianapolis, a site chosen for its location in the geographical center of the state.
In its first decade as a state, Indiana's population surged as migrants from the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia bought newly opened federal lands; later, arrivals from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York joined them. Although slavery was prohibited by the 1816 state constitution, other legal restrictions kept some African Americans from settling in Indiana. By 1830, just over 1 percent of the state's 343,031 inhabitants was African American, a figure that remained steady until well after the Civil War. A surge in the number of foreign-born immigrants, particularly German-speaking arrivals to central and southern Indiana, contributed to well over 5 percent of the state's population after 1850.
With land well suited to farming and raising livestock throughout the state, most of the newcomers settled into agricultural pursuits. Early attempts at industrial concerns included furniture making, farm implement production, and food processing. However, small-town life characterized Indiana throughout the nineteenth century; even up to 1850, the state's largest city, the Ohio River town of New Albany, held no more than 8,181 residents. While the towns of Indiana remained important trading centers for commercial farmers, the state's cultural fabric was constructed by thousands of small family farms. At the end of the antebellum era, more than 91 percent of Indiana residents lived in rural areas. From the predominance of its small-town character, the appellation "Hoosier" was affectionately bestowed upon Indiana's residents from the 1820s onward. Although many folkloric explanations have been given for the term, one of the most likely is that it came from the employment of Indiana canal workers by the Kentucky contractor Samuel Hoosier. The workers became known as "Hoosiers," and the name soon became generalized to describe all Indianians.
Although only a few minor engagements of the Civil War touched Indiana soil, the state's unity was tested by its commitment to the Union's cause. With so many recent migrants from southern states, support for the Confederacy ran high during the conflict's early days. However, a majority of residents—especially antislavery Quaker migrants from the Carolinas who came to the state in the 1810s and 1820s—eventually made the state a stalwart supporter of the Union. After the war, political allegiance shifted back once again, and the state remained roughly divided between the Democratic and Republican parties, a trait it retained through succeeding generations.
While Indiana engaged in the internal improvement craze of the 1840s with heavy state investment in canal building, the state's geographic importance between the agricultural centers of the Midwest and the markets of the East became more apparent after the Civil War. While the Ohio River trade favored the growth of Evansville and New Albany in the first half of the nineteenth century, railroads covered central and northern Indiana by the 1880s. Indianapolis and Terre Haute ranked as major rail centers. The latter city witnessed the formation of the American Railway Union by Eugene V. Debs in 1893, one of the first labor unions of industrial workers in the United States. Rail traffic also spurred commercial and manufacturing growth throughout the state. In 1852, the Studebaker brothers founded a blacksmith shop that made South Bend the site of the largest wagon works after the Civil War; the company would produce automobiles under the Studebaker name in the northern Indiana city until 1963. Another city, Muncie, gained fame as the site of the Ball Brothers Company; relocated to Indiana from New York in 1886, the factory immediately became the leading producer of glass jars and canning instruments in the United States. The most dramatic urban development, however, occurred in the northwestern corner of the state. Founded and built largely to serve the U.S. Steel Corporation's mills, the city of Gary grew from its inception in 1907 to have over 100,000 residents by 1940. The refineries of the Standard Oil Company in Whiting, opened in 1889, along with numerous other major steel and metal works throughout the area made northwest Indiana's Calumet region the most heavily industrialized in the state.
Like many state capitals, Indianapolis owed most of its early growth to its status as a center of government. Located on the White River, with insufficient depth to allow commercial navigation, the city had to wait until the railroad era to take advantage of its strategic location in the center of the state. Although hampered by a lack of natural resources in the immediate area, Indianapolis eventually developed a diverse manufacturing base to supplement its role as a center of government and commerce.
Hoosier Values
Even as the state edged into urbanism, it retained much of the small-town values from its early days. As explored by Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd in their classic sociological study of Muncie, Middletown: A Study in ModernAmerican Culture (1929), typical Hoosiers valued consensus and conformity, even as they embraced modern conveniences at home and at work. Although Middle-town's residents respected differences in religion and politics, they were suspicious of beliefs deemed foreign or strange. The source of both the state's strength and weakness, these dichotomous characteristics were the basis for some of the best literary works produced by Indiana writers, including native sons such as Booth Tarkington, James Whitcomb Riley, and Theodore Dreiser.
Increasingly, the white, Anglo-Saxon character of small-town Hoosier life became more heterogeneous in the twentieth century. In 1920, a bare majority of the state's almost three million residents lived in urban areas. Foreign-born residents represented over 5 percent of the population; the Great Migration of African Americans northward after World War I increased their presence to almost 3 percent. These demographic changes, along with a conservative reaction to the spread of Jazz Age culture in the 1920s, fueled a rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. The state became the midwestern center of the organization in the 1920s. Under the banner of patriotism, combined with directives against Roman Catholics, the foreign-born, and African Americans, the Klan attracted upwards of 300,000 Hoosier members by 1923 in urban and rural areas alike. By the following year, Klan-endorsed candidates controlled the Indiana legislature and the governor's office as well. Only in 1925, after the conviction of Klan leader D. C. Stephenson for murder and rape, did the organization relinquish its hold on Indiana politics. A 1928 Pulitzer Prize–winning campaign by the Indianapolis Times against the Klan finally purged it from legitimate political circles.
Industrial Strength
Aside from the conservative politics of the decade, the driving force in Hoosier life was the state's continuing industrialization that linked it firmly with the national economy, especially the automobile industry. By the end of the 1920s, steel production was the state's largest industry, with automobile and auto parts manufacturing and electrical component production ranked just behind it. Most northern and central Indiana cities were tied to the auto industry with at least one automobile or parts production factory employing their citizens, while the Calumet cities continued to expand their steel output. To the south, Evansville became a major center of refrigeration unit production. The state's natural resources also continued to make Indiana a center of limestone, sand, and coal output, particularly throughout the southern part of the state.
Given the economy's growing dependence on durable goods manufacturing by 1930, the onset of the Great Depression hit the state hard. Industrial employment plunged to almost half its pre-Depression level by 1932, as employers such as U.S. Steel, which had doubled its production capacity in the 1920s, shut down. In the midst of New Deal attempts to revive the economy, Hoosier workers responded with a number of organizational efforts to form labor unions. A sit-down strike at Anderson's Guide Lamp factory in 1936 and 1937 led by the United Auto Workers (UAW) was a pivotal action in forcing General Motors to recognize the right of workers to collectively bargain through their unions. Anderson became a bastion of UAW support in politics and society, while Evansville witnessed the rise of the United Electrical Workers and the Calumet region, the United Steel Workers. As it had been since the 1890s, the United Mine Workers remained a strong force in the lives of thousands of Hoosiers in the coal mining towns of southern Indiana.
Spurred on by lucrative federal contracts to industrial employers during World War II, the state's emphasis on manufacturing investment continued into the postwar era. By 1958, over 40 percent of the state's total earnings came from the manufacturing sector, a rate that far outpaced the national average. Even as the national economy moved away from durable goods manufacturing, Indiana remained a bastion of manufacturing strength: in 1981, the national economy derived less than 17 percent of its earnings from durable goods production, while in Indiana, the rate was over 31 percent. Although the manufacturing sector provided many Hoosiers with high-wage jobs and advantageous benefits, the state's dependence on the industrial sector came under criticism during the recession from 1979 to 1982. With prohibitively high interest rates and energy prices, many industrial corporations failed to reinvest in new technology and equipment; as a result, many of the so-called "smokestack industries" lost their competitive advantage during the recession. About one-quarter of the employees in the durable goods sector lost their jobs in Indiana, and unemployment rates in Muncie and Anderson topped 18 percent in 1982.
While those without a college degree had previously obtained high-paying jobs in the manufacturing sector, public leaders were concerned that the state's economy might not provide such opportunities in the future. Calls for greater access to Indiana's system of higher education prevailed in the 1980s and 1990s. Although the Purdue University and Indiana University systems had expanded greatly with branch campuses around the state after World War II, in 1990 the college attendance rate of 37 percent continued to trail the national average of 45 percent. Indiana also ranked low on the number of college graduates who completed their degrees and remained in the state's workforce.
As it emerged from the recession of the early 1980s, Indiana's manufacturing base contributed to the recovery and the state remained one of the top five producers of aircraft engines and parts, truck and bus bodies, steel, surgical supplies, and pharmaceuticals. In 1999, manufacturing jobs made up 23.4 percent of nonfarm employment. While the overall number of manufacturing jobs in Indiana increased throughout the 1990s, the service sector became the single largest provider of nonagricultural jobs, with a 24.3 percent share. Agricultural production, once a mainstay of the state's development, represented just 1.8 percent of Indiana's economic output in 1997. In Indianapolis, the Eli Lilly Company, making products from insulin to Prozac, ranked as the state's largest corporation, with global sales approaching $11 billion in 2000. Overall, the Hoosier economy was the nation's eighteenth largest in 1997; with 27 percent of its manufacturing workforce making products for export, Indiana ranked fifteenth in the nation as an exporting state.
At the millennium, Indiana had 6,080,485 inhabitants, making it the nation's fourteenth most populous state. African Americans comprised the state's largest minority group, with 8.4 percent of the total population; 87.5 percent of Hoosiers identified themselves as white. Indianapolis had a population of more than 750,000 people, but no other city other than Fort Wayne had more than 200,000 residents. Indeed, Indiana's reputation remained rooted in a small-town, Hoosier identity. Steve Tesich's portrait of town-and-gown relations in Bloomington, the subject of the coming-of-age movie Breaking Away (1979), won an Academy Award for best screenplay. Hammond resident Jean Shepherd's wry reminiscences of the 1940s served as the basis for the movie A Christmas Story (1983). The movie Hoosiers (1986), based on the basketball team from the town of Milan that won the state championship in the 1950s, also thrilled audiences who rooted for the underdog team. Few other states follow high school and college sports teams so avidly. Basketball remains the top Hoosier pasttime, and Indianapolis waged a successful campaign to become the home of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1999. The NCAA Hall of Champions museum, along with the annual five-hundred-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has added to the city's popularity as a tourist destination.
While the ascendancy of Dan Quayle to vice president in 1988 led some observers to herald a period of Republican dominance in the state, Indiana voters remained steadfastly centrist in their habits. The Indiana legislature typically was evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. After a twenty-year run of Republican governors, the Democrat Evan Bayh in 1989 began the first of two terms as governor. In 1998, Bayh went on to the U.S. Senate in a landslide victory with 63 percent of the vote. He was replaced by another Democrat, Frank O'Bannon, who in 2000 won another term in office with 57 percent of the vote. Like Bayh, the state's senior senator, Republican Richard Lugar, was regarded as a political centrist, holding conservative views on fiscal matters while avoiding stridency on foreign relations or public policy issues. Avoiding the political extremes, both senators embodied the central values of their Hoosier constituents.
Bibliography
Cayton, Andrew R. L. Frontier Indiana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Critchlow, Donald T. Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Lynd, Robert S., and Helen Merrell Lynd. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1929.
Madison, James H. The Indiana Way: A State History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
———, ed. Heart Land: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern States. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Nelson, Daniel. Farm and Factory: Workers in the Midwest, 1880–1990. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Indiana |
Facts and Figures
Area, 36,291 sq mi (93,994 sq km). Pop. (2000) 6,080,485, a 9.7% increase since the 1990 census. Capital and largest city, Indianapolis. Statehood, Dec. 11, 1816 (19th state). Highest pt., 1,257 ft (383 m), Wayne co.; lowest pt., Ohio River, 320 ft (98 m). Nickname, Hoosier State. Motto, Crossroads of America. State bird, cardinal. State flower, peony. State tree, tulip poplar. Abbr., Ind.; IN
Geography
Northern Indiana is a glaciated lake area, separated by the Wabash River from the central agricultural plain, which is rich with deep glacial drift. The southern portion of the state is a succession of bottomlands interspersed with knolls and ridges, gorges and valleys. Limestone caves, such as the big Wyandotte Cave, and mineral springs, as at French Lick and West Baden Springs, are found there. The unglaciated soil is shallow in S Indiana, and the cutting of timber has caused erosion, but there is still extensive farming.
The capital and largest city is Indianapolis, in the central part of the state. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, with a 3-mi (4.8-km) frontage on Lake Michigan, is noted for its beautiful shifting sand dunes. Formerly a state park, the area was made a National Lakeshore in 1966. Four years earlier, in 1962, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in S Indiana. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the site of the famous 500-mi (800-km) auto race, held annually.
Economy
Although Indiana is primarily a manufacturing state, about three quarters of the land is utilized for agriculture. With a growing season of about 170 days and an average rainfall of 40 in. (102 cm) per year, Indiana farms have rich yields. Grain crops, mainly corn and wheat, are important and also support livestock and dairying industries. Soybeans and hay are also principal crops, and popcorn and widely varied vegetables and fruits are also produced. Hogs, eggs, and cattle are also important. Meatpacking is chief among the many industries related to agriculture. Although the urban population exceeds the rural, many towns are primarily service centers for agricultural communities.
There are, however, cities with varied heavy industries; prominent, besides Indianapolis, are Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary, Kokomo, South Bend, and Terre Haute. These cities were among the highest in the nation in unemployment during the recession of the early 1980s. Indiana's leading manufactures are iron and steel, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, nonelectrical machinery, chemicals, food products, and fabricated metals. Rich mineral deposits of coal and stone (the S central Indiana area is the nation's leading producer of building limestone) have encouraged construction and industry.
Throughout the state the products of farms and factories are transported by truck and by train. Indiana calls itself the crossroads of America, and its extreme northwest corner—where transportation lines head east after converging on nearby Chicago from all directions—is one of the most heavily traveled areas in the world in terms of rail, road, and air traffic. Waterborne traffic is also important; improvements on the Ohio River and the opening (1959) of the St. Lawrence Seaway have benefited the state. With the opening in 1970 of the Burns Waterway Harbor on Lake Michigan, Indiana gained its first public port and enhanced its shipping facilities.
Government, Politics, and Higher Education
Indiana's constitution dates from 1851 and provides for an elected executive and legislature. A governor serves as the chief executive for a term of four years. The legislature, called the general assembly, has a senate with 50 members and a house of representatives with 100 members. Indiana elects 9 representatives and 2 senators to the U.S. Congress and has 11 electoral votes.
During the 20th cent. Indiana has been generally conservative and Republican, although Democrats have had some successes in gubernatorial and congressional elections. Evan Bayh, elected governor in 1988 and 1992, was succeeded by another Democrat, Frank O'Bannon, elected in 1996 and reelected in 2000. Lt. Gov. Joseph E. Kernan, also a Democrat, succeeded O'Bannon when the latter died in 2003, but Kernan lost to Republican Mitch Daniels in 2004. Daniels was reelected in 2008.
Among the institutions of higher learning in Indiana are Indiana Univ., at Bloomington; Purdue Univ., at West Lafayette; the Univ. of Notre Dame, near South Bend; Indiana Univ./Purdue Univ. at Indianapolis (IUPUI); Indiana State Univ., at Terre Haute; DePauw Univ., at Greencastle; Butler Univ., at Indianapolis; Valparaiso Univ., at Valparaiso; Wabash College, at Crawfordsville; Earlham College, at Richmond; and Goshen College, at Goshen.
History
From the Mound Builders to Tippecanoe
The Mound Builders were Indiana's earliest known inhabitants, and the remains of their culture have been found along Indiana's rivers and bottomlands. The region was first explored by Europeans, notably the French, in the late 17th cent. The leading French explorer was Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, who came to the area in 1679. At the time of exploration, the area was occupied mainly by Native American groups of the Miami, Delaware, and Potawatamie descents. Vincennes, the first permanent settlement, was fortified in 1732, but for the first half of the 1700s, most of the settlers in the area were Jesuit missionaries or fur traders.
By the Treaty of Paris of 1763 ending the French and Indian Wars, Indiana, then part of the area known as the Old Northwest, passed from French to British control. Along with the rest of the Old Northwest, Indiana was united with Canada under the Quebec Act of 1774 (see Intolerable Acts). During the American Revolution an expedition led by George Rogers Clark captured, lost, and then recaptured Vincennes from the British. By the Treaty of Paris of 1783 ending the Revolutionary War, Great Britain ceded the Old Northwest to the United States.
Indiana was still largely unsettled when the Northwest Territory, of which it formed a part, was established in 1787. Native Americans in the territory resisted settlement, but Gen. Anthony Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794 effectively ended Native American resistance in the Old Northwest. U.S. forces led by Gen. William Henry Harrison also defeated the Native American forces in the battle of Tippecanoe (1811) in the Wabash country.
Indiana Territory and Statehood
In 1800, Indiana Territory was formed and included the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan and Minnesota. Vincennes was made the capital, which in 1813 was moved to Corydon. A constitutional convention met in 1816, and Indiana achieved statehood. Jonathan Jennings, an opponent of slavery, was elected governor. Indianapolis was laid out as the state capital, and the executive moved there in 1824–25.
Indiana was the site of several experimental communities in the early 19th cent., notably the Rappite (1815) and Owenite (1825) settlements at New Harmony. In the 1840s the Wabash and Erie Canal opened between Lafayette and Toledo, Ohio, giving Indiana a water route via Lake Erie to eastern markets. Also in the 1840s the state's first railroad line was completed between Indianapolis and Madison. The Hoosier spirit of simplicity and forthrightness that developed during Indiana's early years of statehood figured in the writings of Edward Eggleston in The Hoosier Schoolmaster and was represented in much later days by James Whitcomb Riley, George Ade, Gene Stratton Porter, and also in the nostalgic lyric by Paul Dresser (brother of Indiana-born novelist Theodore Dreiser) for the song “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away.”
The Civil War and Its Aftermath
The Civil War brought great changes in the state. In the elections of 1860, Indiana voted for Lincoln, who had spent his boyhood in the Hoosier state. Although there was some proslavery sentiment in Indiana, represented by the Knights of the Golden Circle, Oliver P. Morton, governor during the war, held the state unswervingly to the Union cause even after constitutional government broke down in 1862. General John Hunt Morgan led a Confederate raid into Indiana in 1863, but otherwise little action occurred in the state.
Manufacturing, which had been stimulated in Indiana by the needs of the war, developed rapidly after the war. Factories sprang up, and the old rustic pattern was broken. However, Indiana's farmers continued to be an important force in the state, and in the hard times following the Panic of 1873 indebted farmers expressed their discontent by supporting the Granger movement and later the Greenback party in 1876 and the Populist party in the 1890s.
Industrialization and the Labor Movement
Industrial development came to the Calumet region along Indiana's Lake Michigan shoreline in the late 19th cent. Marshy wastelands were drained and transformed into an area supporting a complex of factories and oil refineries. As the 19th cent. drew to a close, industry continued to expand and the growing numbers of industrial workers in the state sought to organize through labor unions. Eugene V. Debs, one of the great early labor leaders, was from Indiana, and the labor movement at Gary in the Calumet area figured prominently in the nationwide steel strike just after World War I. Indiana was an early leader in the production of automobiles. Before Detroit took control of the industry in the 1920s, Indiana boasted over 300 automobile companies.
Indiana society in the first half of the 20th cent. has been described in a number of studies and books. The classic sociological study by Robert S. Lynd and Helen M. Lynd of an American manufacturing town, Middletown (1929), was based on data from Muncie, Ind. Midwestern life and American boyhood were portrayed realistically, and often with humor and optimism, in the novels of Booth Tarkington. Another Indiana author, Theodore Dreiser, wrote more generally of American society in a changing age. In the 1930s and 1940s, Wendell Willkie and Ernie Pyle, both natives of Indiana, became nationally prominent figures in politics and journalism, respectively.
Although Indiana in the latter half of the 19th cent. was regarded as a “swing state” electorally, it has generally been conservative throughout the 1900s. Republican J. Danforth “Dan” Quayle, elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980 and 1986, was elected vice president of the United States in 1988. From the 1980s through the mid-1990s, the northern industrial portion of the state experienced a period of significant decline, along with the rest of the midwestern “rust belt.” However, the area around Indianapolis experienced significant growth with a diversified economy.
Bibliography
See H. H. Peckham, Indiana, a History (1978); J. S. Blue, Hoosier Wit & Wisdom (1985); E. E. Lyon and L. Dillon, Indiana: The American Heartland (1986); J. H. Madison, The Indiana Way (1986); R. M. Taylor, Jr., et al., Indiana: A New Historical Guide (1989).
| Geography: Indiana |
| Wine Lover's Companion: Indiana |
Grapes were first planted in this Midwest state in the late 1700s and it became one of the 10 largest grape-producing states in the early to mid-1800s. Vineyard diseases destroyed most of the vines in the mid- to late 1800s, and it wasn't until the Small Winery Act passed in the early 1970s that a rebirth took place. Today Indianapolis hosts the annual Indy International Wine Competition, one of the largest U.S. Wine competitions outside of California. Currently there are just over twenty-five wineries in the state. A majority of the wines here are made from hybrid grapes like aurora, catawba, seyval blanc, vidal blanc andvignoles there are a large number of fruit wines produced. vitis vinifera grapes like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay are being planted, particularly near Bloomington and Milan. Some wineries still purchase crushed grapes from areas like California and make the wine at their facility. Areas around the Ohio River are part of the ohio river valley ava which also includes parts of kentucky, ohio and west virginia.
| Stats: Indiana |
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| Parks: Indiana |
| Wikipedia: Indiana |
| The State of Indiana | |||||||||||
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| Official language(s) | English | ||||||||||
| Demonym | Hoosier [1] |
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| Capital | Indianapolis | ||||||||||
| Largest city | Indianapolis | ||||||||||
| Largest metro area | Indianapolis Metropolitan Area | ||||||||||
| Area | Ranked 38th in the US | ||||||||||
| - Total | 36,418 sq mi (94,321 km²) |
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| - Width | 140 miles (225 km) | ||||||||||
| - Length | 270 miles (435 km) | ||||||||||
| - % water | 1.5 | ||||||||||
| - Latitude | 37° 46′ N to 41° 46′ N | ||||||||||
| - Longitude | 84° 47′ W to 88° 6′ W | ||||||||||
| Population | Ranked 16th in the US | ||||||||||
| - Total | 6,376,792 (2008 est.)[2] | ||||||||||
| - Density | 169.5/sq mi (65.46/km²) Ranked 17th in the US |
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| Elevation | |||||||||||
| - Highest point | Hoosier Hill Wayne County[3] 1,257 ft (383 m) |
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| - Mean | 689 ft (210 m) | ||||||||||
| - Lowest point | Ohio River and mouth of Wabash River Posey County[3] 320 ft (98 m) |
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| Admission to Union | December 11, 1816 (19th) | ||||||||||
| Governor | Mitch Daniels (R) | ||||||||||
| Lieutenant Governor | Becky Skillman (R) | ||||||||||
| U.S. Senators | Richard Lugar (R) Evan Bayh (D) |
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| U.S. House delegation | 5 Democrats, 4 Republicans (list) | ||||||||||
| Time zones | |||||||||||
| - 80 counties | Eastern UTC-5/-4 | ||||||||||
| - 12 counties in Evansville and Gary Metro Areas |
Central: UTC-6/-5 | ||||||||||
| Abbreviations | IN US-IN | ||||||||||
| Website | www.in.gov | ||||||||||
The State of Indiana (
/ɪndiˈænə/ (help·info)) was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is a Northern state located in the Great Lakes region of the United States of America. With about 6.3 million residents, it is ranked 16th in population and 17th in population density.[4] Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and of the lower 48 states, Indiana is the smallest state in the continental United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis.
Indiana is a diverse state with a few large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns. It is known nationally for its sports teams and athletic events: the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, the NBA's Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis 500 motorsports race, the largest single-day sporting event in the world, and for a strong basketball tradition, often called Hoosier Hysteria.
Residents of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. Although many stories are told, the origin of the term is unknown. The state's name means "Land of the Indians", or simply "Indian Land". The name dates back to at least the 1768 Indiana Land Company, and was first used by Congress when Indiana Territory was created, at which time the territory was unceded Indian land.[5][6] Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United States, can be found in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville.[7]
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The first people to live in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, ingressing about 10000 BC after the melting of the glaciers at the conclusion of the Ice Age. Divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as Mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking.[8] Tribes succeeded one another in dominance for several thousand years. By 900 AD an advanced culture of Mississippians became dominant building large cities of 30,000 inhabitants and massive earthworks in the state. For unknown reasons, their entire civilization disappeared sometime around 1450.[9] The region entered recorded history when the first Europeans came to Indiana and claimed the territory for Kingdom of France during the 1670s. At the conclusion of the French and Indian War and one hundred years of French rule, the region came under the control of the Kingdom of Great Britain. British control was short-lived, as the region was transferred to the newly formed United States at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War only 20 years later.
At the time the United States took possession of Indiana, there were only two permanent European settlements in the entire territory, Clark's Grant and Vincennes. The United States immediately set to work to develop Indiana. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was established and steadily settled. It was originally placed under the governorship of William Henry Harrison who oversaw the purchase of millions of acres of land from the native tribes and successfully guided the territory through Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812.
Indiana was admitted to the Union in 1816 as the nineteenth state. Following statehood, the new government set out on an ambitious plan to transform Indiana from a wilderness frontier into a developed, well populated, and thriving state. The state's founders initiated a program that led to the construction of roads, canals, railroads, and state funded public schools. The plans nearly bankrupted the state and were a financial disaster, but increased land and produce value more than fourfold. During the 1850s, the state's population grew to exceed one million and the ambitious program of the state founders was finally realized.
During the American Civil War, Indiana became politically influential and played an important role in the affairs of the nation. As the first western state to mobilize for the war, Indiana's soldiers were present in almost every engagement during the war. After the Civil War, Indiana remained important nationally as it became a critical swing state in U.S. Presidential elections, which decided control of the federal government for three decades.[10] Following the Civil War, Indiana industry began to grow and an accelerated rate across the northern part of the state leading to the formation of labor unions and suffrage movements.[11]
The Indiana Gas Boom led to rapid industrialization during the late 19th century. During the early 20th century, Indiana developed into a strong manufacturing state, then experienced setbacks during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The state also saw many developments with the construction of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the takeoff of the auto industry in the state, substantial urban growth, and two major United States wars.[12] Economic recovery began during World War II and the state continued to enjoy substantial growth. During the second half the of the 20th century, Indiana became a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, as Eli Lilly and other companies expanded operations in the state.[13]
Indiana is bounded on the north by Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan; on the east by Ohio; on the south by Kentucky, with which it shares the Ohio River as a border; and on the west by Illinois. Indiana is one of the Great Lakes states.
The northern boundary of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois was originally defined to be a latitudinal line drawn through the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan. Since such a line did not provide Indiana with usable frontage on the lake, its northern border was shifted ten miles (16 km) north when it was granted statehood in 1816.[14]
The 475 mile (764 km) long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest before flowing south, mostly along the Indiana-Illinois border. The river has given Indiana a few theme songs, such as On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash Cannonball and Back Home Again, In Indiana.[15][16] The Wabash is the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi, traversing 400 miles (640 km) from the Huntington dam to the Ohio River. The White River (a tributary of the Wabash, which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central Indiana.
There are 24 Indiana state parks, nine man-made reservoirs, and hundreds of lakes in the state. Areas under the control and protection of the National Park Service or the United States Forest Service include:[17][18]
The northwest corner of the state is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and has nearly one million residents.[19] Gary, and the cities and towns that make up the northern half of Lake, Porter, and La Porte Counties bordering on Lake Michigan, are effectively commuter suburbs of Chicago. Porter and Lake counties are commonly referred to as "The Calumet Region". The name comes from the fact that the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet rivers run through the area. These counties are in the Central Time Zone, the same as Chicago. NICTD owns and operates the South Shore Line, a commuter rail line that runs electric-powered trains between South Bend and Chicago.[20] Sand dunes and heavy industry share the shoreline of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana. Along the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Northern Indiana one can find many parks between the industrial areas. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the Indiana Dunes State Park are two natural landmarks of the area.
The region is marked with swell and swale topography as it retreats South from Lake Michigan. The ecology changes dramatically between swells, or on opposite sides of the same swell. Plants and animals adapted to marshes are generally found in the swales, while forests or even prickly pear cactus are found in the dryer swells.[21]
The Kankakee River winds through northern Indiana and serves as a demarcating line between suburban northwest Indiana and the rest of the state.[22] Before it was drained and developed for agriculture, the Great Kankakee Swamp was one of the largest freshwater marshes in the country.[23] South of the Kankakee is eastern edge of the Grand Prairie that covers Iowa and Illinois.[24] The Prairie Chicken and American Bison were common in Indiana's pioneer era, but are now extinct as wild species within the state.
The South Bend metropolitan area, in north central Indiana, is the center of commerce in the region better known as Michiana. Other cities located within the area include Elkhart, Mishawaka, Goshen, and Warsaw. Fort Wayne, the state's second largest city, is located in the northeastern part of the state where it serves the state as an important transportation hub. Other cities located within the area include Huntington and Marion. East of Fort Wayne is an area of flat land that, before being drained, was the western-most reach of the Great Black Swamp.[25]
Northeastern Indiana is home to a number of lakes like Glacial Lake Maumee, many of which are the remains of the glaciers that covered Indiana thousands of years ago. Lake Wawasee is the largest natural lake in Indiana, while Lake Tippecanoe is the deepest lake, reaching depths of over 120 feet (37 m). Both lakes are located in Kosciusko County. Chain O' Lakes State Park, located in Noble County, contains 11 lakes, 8 of which are connected by natural channels.
The state capital and largest city, Indianapolis, is situated in the central portion of the state. It is intersected by numerous Interstates, U.S. highways, and railways giving the state its motto as "The Crossroads of America".[26] Other large cities and located within the area include Anderson, Carmel, Columbus, Kokomo, Lafayette, Richmond, and Terre Haute.
Rural areas in the central portion of the state are typically composed of a patchwork of fields and forested areas. The geography of Central Indiana consists of gently rolling hills and sandstone ravines carved out by the retreating glaciers. Many of these ravines can be found in west-central Indiana, specifically along Sugar Creek in Turkey Run State Park and Shades State Park.
Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located in the southwestern corner of the state. It is located in a tri-state area that includes Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The south-central cities of Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany are part of the Louisville metropolitan area. Vincennes, founded by French traders in 1732 and the oldest European settlement in the state, is located on the Wabash River as served as the first capitol of the Indiana Territory. Indiana was settled from southern periphery northward and the state's oldest settlements and first capital, Corydon are in southern Indiana. The majority of the states population lived in southern Indiana until the 1950s.
Southern Indiana is a mixture of farmland, forest and very hilly areas, especially near Louisville and in the south central lime hills areas. The Hoosier National Forest is a 200,000-acre (810 km2) nature preserve in south central Indiana. Southern Indiana's topography is more varied than that in the north and generally contains more hills and geographic variation than the northern portion, such as the "Knobs," a series of 1,000 ft (300 m) hills that run parallel to the Ohio River in south-central Indiana. The bottomlands of Indiana, where the Wabash and Ohio converge, hosts numerous plant and animal species normally found in the Lower Mississippi and Gulf Coast region of the United States.[27]
The limestone geology of Southern Indiana has created numerous caves and one of the largest limestone quarry regions in the United States. Harrison and Crawford Counties have three of the state's most popular commercial caves at Wyandotte, Marengo, and Squire Boone Caverns. The limestone is also an important building material, and many of Indiana's official buildings, such as the Indiana Statehouse, the downtown monuments, and many buildings at Indiana University in Bloomington are all examples of Indiana architecture made with Indiana limestone. Indiana limestone has also been used in many other famous structures in the U.S., including the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the Washington National Cathedral.[28]
Indiana has a humid continental climate, with cool winters and warm, irriguous summers.[29] The extreme southern portion of the state is within the humid subtropical climate area and receives more precipitation than other parts of Indiana.[30] Temperatures generally diverge from the north and south sections of the state, with the annual mean temperature being 49°F-58°F (9°C-12°C) in the north and 57°F (14°C) in the south. While temperatures can fall below 0°F (-18°C) in the winter, the average in January ranges between 17°F (-8°C) and 35°F (2°C). Average temperatures during July differentiate from 63°F (17°C) to 88°F (31°C). The record high temperature for the state was 116°F (47°C) set on July 14, 1936 at Collegeville. The record low was -36°F (-38°C) on January 19, 1994 at New Whiteland. The growing season typically spans from 155 days in the north and 185 days in the south. While droughts occasionally occur in the southern region, rainfall totals are administered equally throughout the year. Precipitation totals range from 35 inches (89 cm) near Lake Michigan to 45 inches (110 cm) along the Ohio River, with the state averages to 40 inches (100 cm). The annual snowfall in Indiana averages less than 22 inches (56 cm) and the average wind speed in the state is 8 miles per hour (13 km/h).[31] Indiana is one of the most tornado-proned states in the country, rankings sixth in a list by an Alabama company called VorTek. The city of South Bend was ranked the 14th most tornado-prone city in the country, ahead of cities such as Houston and Wichita.[32]
| Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures for Largest Indiana Cities | ||||||||||||
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evansville | 40/23 | 45/26 | 56/35 | 67/44 | 77/54 | 86/64 | 89/68 | 86/64 | 81/57 | 70/45 | 56/36 | 44/27 |
| Fort Wayne | 31/16 | 35/19 | 47/29 | 60/38 | 72/49 | 81/59 | 84/62 | 82/60 | 75/53 | 63/42 | 48/33 | 36/22 |
| Indianapolis | 34/18 | 40/22 | 51/32 | 63/41 | 74/52 | 82/61 | 86/65 | 84/63 | 77/55 | 66/44 | 52/34 | 39/24 |
| South Bend | 31/16 | 36/19 | 47/28 | 59/38 | 71/48 | 80/58 | 83/63 | 81/61 | 74/53 | 62/42 | 48/33 | 36/22 |
| Source: US Travel Weather[33] | ||||||||||||
| Average Precipitation in Indiana[34] | ||||||||||||
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.48 | 2.27 | 3.36 | 3.89 | 4.46 | 4.19 | 4.22 | 3.91 | 3.12 | 3.02 | 3.44 | 3.13 | 41.49 |
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1800 | 2,632 |
|
|
| 1810 | 24,520 | 831.6% | |
| 1820 | 147,178 | 500.2% | |
| 1830 | 343,031 | 133.1% | |
| 1840 | 685,866 | 99.9% | |
| 1850 | 988,416 | 44.1% | |
| 1860 | 1,350,428 | 36.6% | |
| 1870 | 1,680,637 | 24.5% | |
| 1880 | 1,978,301 | 17.7% | |
| 1890 | 2,192,404 | 10.8% | |
| 1900 | 2,516,462 | 14.8% | |
| 1910 | 2,700,876 | 7.3% | |
| 1920 | 2,930,390 | 8.5% | |
| 1930 | 3,238,503 | 10.5% | |
| 1940 | 3,427,796 | 5.8% | |
| 1950 | 3,934,224 | 14.8% | |
| 1960 | 4,662,498 | 18.5% | |
| 1970 | 5,193,669 | 11.4% | |
| 1980 | 5,490,224 | 5.7% | |
| 1990 | 5,544,159 | 1.0% | |
| 2000 | 6,080,485 | 9.7% | |
| Est. 2008[2] | 6,376,792 | 4.9% | |
As of 2006, Indiana had an estimated population of 6,313,520, which is an increase of 47,501, or 0.8%, from the prior year and an increase of 233,003, or 3.8%, since the year 2000.[35] This includes a natural increase since the last census of 196,728 people (that is 541,506 births minus 344,778 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 51,117 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 68,935 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 17,818 people.
The center of population of Indiana is located in Hamilton County, in the town of Sheridan.[36] Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the top five fastest-growing counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other county is Dearborn County, which is near Cincinnati.
The Evansville area has experienced a shift in their population. Vanderburgh County has continued to grow by at least 3% a year while the city of Evansville struggles with retaining population. The other counties of the Evansville area of Southwestern Indiana have started to grow at an increasingly faster rate, especially Gibson and Warrick Counties who are becoming Evansville's suburban counties. Gibson County has seen at least two towns Haubstadt and Fort Branch starting to become "bedroom communities" like Newburgh and Chandler in Warrick County. In addition, the two counties have seen their minority (in particular, Asian, African-American, and Hispanic) populations nearly double in the last 15 years.
| Demographics of Indiana (csv) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By race | White | Black | AIAN* | Asian | NHPI* |
| 2000 (total population) | 90.13% | 8.91% | 0.65% | 1.21% | 0.08% |
| 2000 (Hispanic only) | 3.31% | 0.15% | 0.07% | 0.03% | 0.02% |
| 2005 (total population) | 89.57% | 9.42% | 0.63% | 1.44% | 0.08% |
| 2005 (Hispanic only) | 4.29% | 0.19% | 0.08% | 0.04% | 0.02% |
| Growth 2000–05 (total population) | 2.51% | 8.99% | -0.26% | 23.11% | 11.31% |
| Growth 2000–05 (non-Hispanic only) | 1.33% | 8.68% | -2.87% | 22.97% | 9.77% |
| Growth 2000–05 (Hispanic only) | 33.38% | 26.82% | 21.02% | 28.42% | 16.70% |
| * AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native; NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | |||||
As of 2005, the total population included 242,281 foreign-born (3.9%).[37]
German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with 22.7% of the population reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing "American" (12.0%) and English ancestry (8.9%) are also numerous, as are Irish (10.8%) and Polish (3.0%).[38]
Although the largest single religious denomination in the state is Roman Catholic (836,009 members), most of the population are members of various Protestant denominations. The largest Protestant denomination by number of adherents in 2000 was the United Methodist Church with 288,308.[39] A study by the Graduate Center found that 20% are Roman Catholic, 14% belong to different Baptist churches, 10% are other Christians, 9% are Methodist, and 6% are Lutheran. The study also found that 16% are secular.[40]
The state is home to the University of Notre Dame and several other private, religiously affiliated schools. It also has a strong parochial school system in the larger metropolitan areas. Southern Indiana is the home to a number of Catholic monasteries and one of the two archabbeys in the United States, St. Meinrad Archabbey. Two conservative denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, have their headquarters in Indianapolis as does the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches maintains offices and publishing work in Winona Lake. Huntington serves as the home to the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Anderson is home to the headquarters of the Church of God (Anderson) Ministries and Warner Press Publishing House. Fort Wayne is the headquarters of the Missionary Church. Fort Wayne is also home to one of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's seminaries - Concordia Theological Seminary. The Friends United Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the largest branch of American Quakerism, is based in Richmond. Richmond also houses the oldest Quaker seminary in the US, the Earlham School of Religion. Indiana is home to an estimated 250,000 Muslims (about 3.9% of the total population).[41] The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered just off Interstate 70 in Plainfield, west of Indianapolis.
In 1906, the Census reported there were 938,405 members of different religious denominations; of this total, 233,443 were Methodists (210,593 of the Northern Church); 174,849 were Roman Catholics, 108,188 were Disciples of Christ; 92,705 were Baptists (60,203 of the Northern Convention, 13,526 of the National (African American) Convention; 8,132 Primitive Baptists, and 6,671 General Baptists); 58,633 were Presbyterians (49,041 of the Northern Church, and 6,376 of the Cumberland Church—since united with the Northern); 55,768 were Lutherans (34,028 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference, 8,310 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and other states), 52,700 were United Brethren (48,059 of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ; the others of the " Old Constitution "), 21,624 of the German Evangelical Synod; and 10,219 members of the Churches of Christ.[42]
The largest city in Indiana is state capital Indianapolis. "Indy" and its surrounding suburban areas are home to over 2,000,000 people - almost a full third of the state's population.
Fort Wayne, Evansville, and South Bend are the only other Indiana cities with populations over 100,000.
| Rank | City or Town | 2007 Population[43] | 2007 Metro Population[44] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indianapolis | 795,458 | 2,035,327 |
| 2 | Fort Wayne | 251,247 | 572,194 |
| 3 | Evansville | 116,253 | 349,717 |
| 4 | South Bend | 104,069 | 562,711 |
| 5 | Gary | 96,429 | 698,971 |
| 6 | Hammond | 77,175 | * |
| 7 | Bloomington | 72,254 | 183,733 |
| 8 | Carmel | 68,677 | ** |
| 9 | Muncie | 65,410 | 115,419 |
| 10 | Fishers | 65,382 | ** |
| 11 | Lafayette | 63,679 | 192,161 |
| 12 | Terre Haute | 58,932 | 169,346 |
| 13 | Anderson | 57,311 | 131,312 |
| 14 | Elkhart | 52,647 | 197,942 |
| 15 | Mishawaka | 49,439 | *** |
| *Gary Metro, **Indianapolis Metro, ***South Bend Metro | |||
Indiana Government has three branches: executive (government), legislative (parliament) and judicial. The governor of Indiana, elected for a four-year term, heads the government. The Indiana General Assembly, the legislative branch, consists of the upper house, Senate, and the lower house, House of Representatives. Indiana's fifty State Senators are elected for four-year terms and one hundred State Representatives for two-year terms. In odd-numbered years, the General Assembly meets in a sixty-one day session. In even-numbered years, it meets for thirty session days. The judicial branch consists of the Indiana Supreme Court, Indiana Court of Appeals, the Indiana Tax Court, and local circuit courts.
The current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch," an appellation given by President George W. Bush for whom Mitch Daniels was the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was elected to office on November 2, 2004 and reelected on November 4, 2008.
Indiana has 92 counties, each of which has its own council and local government. Counties are further divided into townships. County officials are elected to four year terms, and have limited authority to impose county-wide income taxes, excise taxes, and property taxes.
The state's U.S. Senators are Senior Sen. Richard Lugar (Republican) and Junior Sen. Evan Bayh (Democrat). Both Senators, although of opposite parties, have proved immensely popular in the state. In 2004, Sen. Bayh won reelection to a second term with 62% of the vote. And in 2006, Sen. Lugar won reelection to a sixth term with 87% of the vote against no major-party opposition.
Former governor and current U.S. Senator Evan Bayh announced in 2006 his plans for a presidential exploratory committee.[45] His father was a three-term senator who was turned out of office in the 1980 Reagan Revolution by conservative Republican (and future Vice-President) Dan Quayle, a native of Huntington in the northeastern part of the state. However, Bayh announced that he would not be seeking the Presidency on December 16, 2006.
| District | Representative | Party | Residence | First Took Office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana 1 | Pete Visclosky | Democrat | Merrillville | January 1985 |
| Indiana 2 | Joe Donnelly | Democrat | Granger | January 2007 |
| Indiana 3 | Mark Souder | Republican | Grabill | January 1995 |
| Indiana 4 | Steve Buyer | Republican | Plainfield | January 1993 |
| Indiana 5 | Dan Burton | Republican | Indianapolis | January 1983 |
| Indiana 6 | Mike Pence | Republican | Columbus | January 2001 |
| Indiana 7 | André Carson | Democrat | Indianapolis | March 2008 |
| Indiana 8 | Brad Ellsworth | Democrat | Evansville | January 2007 |
| Indiana 9 | Baron Hill | Democrat | Seymour | January 1999 |
| Year | Republican | Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 48.91% 1,345,648 | 49.95% 1,374,039 |
| 2004 | 59.94% 1,479,438 | 39.26% 969,011 |
| 2000 | 56.65% 1,245,836 | 41.01% 901,980 |
| 1996 | 47.13% 1,006,693 | 41.55% 887,424 |
| 1992 | 42.91% 989,375 | 36.79% 848,420 |
| 1988 | 59.84% 1,297,763 | 39.69% 860,643 |
Indiana has long been considered to be a Republican stronghold. It has only supported a Democrat for president five times since 1900 - in 1912, 1932, 1936, 1964, and 2008. Nonetheless, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats.
Statistically, Indiana is more of a stronghold for Republican presidential candidates than for candidates elected to state government. Whereas only five Democratic presidential nominees have carried Indiana since 1900, nine Democrats were elected governor during that time. Before Mitch Daniels became governor in 2005, Democrats had held the office for 16 consecutive years. As recently as 2004, Indiana was more Republican than the rest of the nation: George W. Bush won the state 60% to 39% in his reelection campaign, compared to his 51% to 48% win nationwide. However, in 2008, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly defeated Republican opponent John McCain in the state, winning 50% to 49%. This ended a 44-year drought for Democrats going back to the LBJ landslide of 1964.
Historically, Republicans have been strongest in the eastern and central portions of the state, as well as the suburbs of the state's major cities. Democrats have been strongest in the northern, northwestern and specific southern parts of the state along with the major cities. However, outside of Indianapolis, South Bend, the Chicago suburbs, and Bloomington, the state's Democrats tend to be somewhat more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of the country, especially on social issues.
Indiana's delegation to the United States House of Representatives is not limited to Republicans either. Instead, it has generally served as a bellwether for the political movement of the nation. For instance, Democrats held the majority of seats until the 1994 Republican Revolution, when Republicans took a majority. This continued until 2006, when three Republican congressmen were defeated in Indiana; (Chris Chocola, John Hostettler and Mike Sodrel), giving the Democrats a majority of the delegation again.[46]
The total gross state product in 2005 was US$214 billion in 2000 chained dollars.[47] Indiana's per capita income, as of 2005, was US$31,150.[48] A high percentage of Indiana's income is from manufacturing.[49] The Calumet region of northwest Indiana is the largest steel producing area in the U.S. Indiana's other manufactures include pharmaceuticals and medical devices, automobiles, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical products, rubber, petroleum and coal products, and factory machinery.
Despite its reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been much less affected by declines in traditional Rust Belt manufactures than many of its neighbors. The explanation appears to be certain factors in the labor market. First, much of the heavy manufacturing, such as industrial machinery and steel, requires highly skilled labor, and firms are often willing to locate where hard-to-train skills already exist. Second, Indiana's labor force is located primarily in medium-sized and smaller cities rather than in very large and expensive metropolises. This makes it possible for firms to offer somewhat lower wages for these skills than would normally be paid. Firms often see in Indiana a chance to obtain higher than average skills at lower than average wages.[50]
Indiana is home to the international headquarters of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, the state's largest corporation, as well as the world headquarters of Mead Johnson Nutritionals in Evansville.[51] Overall, Indiana ranks fifth among all U.S. states in total sales and shipments of pharmaceutical products and second highest in the number of biopharmaceutical related jobs.[52]
The state is located within the Corn Belt. The state has a feedlot-style system raising corn to fatten hogs and cattle. Soybeans are also a major cash crop. Its proximity to large urban centers, such as Chicago, assure that dairying, egg production, and specialty horticulture occur. Other crops include melons, tomatoes, grapes, mint, popping corn, and tobacco in the southern counties.[53] Most of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Many parcels of woodland remain and support a furniture-making sector in the southern portion of the state.
Indiana's economy is considered to be one of the most business-friendly in the U.S. This is due in part to its conservative business climate, low business taxes, relatively low union membership, and labor laws. The doctrine of at-will employment, whereby an employer can terminate an employee for any or no reason, is in force.
Indiana has a flat state income tax rate of 3.4%. Many Indiana counties also collect income tax. The state sales tax rate is 7%. Property taxes are imposed on both real and personal property in Indiana and are administered by the Department of Local Government Finance. Property is subject to taxation by a variety of taxing units (schools, counties, townships, cities and towns, libraries), making the total tax rate the sum of the tax rates imposed by all taxing units in which a property is located. However, a "circuit breaker" law enacted on March 19, 2008 limits property taxes to one percent of assessed value for homeowners, two percent for rental properties and farmland and three percent for businesses.
Indiana doesn't have a legal requirement to balance the state budget either in law or its constitution. Instead, Indiana has a constitutional ban on assuming debt. Indiana has a Rainy Day Fund and for healthy reserves proportional to spending. Indiana is one of the few states in the U.S. which do not to allow a line-item veto. Indiana does not use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
Indiana's power production chiefly consists of the consumption of fossil fuels, mainly coal. Indiana has 24 coal power plants, including the largest coal power plant in the United States, Gibson Generating Station, located across the Wabash River from Mount Carmel, Illinois. While Indiana has made commitments to increasing use of renewable resources such as wind, hydroelectric, biomass, or solar power, however, progress has been very slow, mainly because of the continued abundance of coal in Southern Indiana. Most of the new plants in the state have been coal gasification plants. Another source is hydroelectric power.
Solar power and wind power are being investigated, and geothermal power is being used commercially. New estimates in 2006 raised the wind capacity for Indiana from 30 MW at 50 m turbine height to 40,000 MW at 70 m, which could double at 100 m, the height of newer turbines.[54] As of the end of June 2008, Indiana has installed 130 MW of wind turbines and has under construction another 400 MW.[55]
| Fuel | Capacity | Percent of Total Consumed | Percent of Total Production | Number of Plants/Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 19,500 MW | 63.0000 % | 88.5000 % | 24 Plants |
| Natural Gas | 2,100 MW | 29.0000 % | 10.5000 % | 15 Facilities *Often used in Peaking Stations |
| Petroleum | 575 MW | 7.5000 % | 1.5000 % | 10 Units |
| Wind | 130.5 MW | ? | ? | 1 Farms/87 Towers (1 additional farm under construction) |
| Hydroelectric | 64 MW | 0.0450 % | 0.0100 % | 1 Plant |
| Biomass | 28 MW | 0.0150 % | 0.0020 % | 1 Facility |
| Wood & Waste | 18 MW | 0.0013 % | 0.0015 % | 3 Units |
| Geothermal and/or Solar | 0 MW | 0.0 % | 0.0 | No Facilities at this time |
| Nuclear | 0 MW | 0.0 % | 0.0 | 1 facility never completed |
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Indianapolis International Airport serves the greater Indianapolis area and has just finished constructing a new passenger terminal. The new airport opened in November 2008 and offers a new midfield passenger terminal, concourses, air traffic control tower, parking garage, and airfield and apron improvements.[56]
Other major airports include Evansville Regional Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport (which houses the 122d Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard), and South Bend Regional Airport. A long-standing proposal to turn the under-utilized Gary Chicago International Airport into Chicago's third major airport received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years.[57]
The Terre Haute International Airport has no airlines operating out of the facility but is used for private flying. Since 1954, the 181st Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard has been stationed at the airport. However, the BRAC Proposal of 2005 stated that the 181st would lose its fighter mission and F-16 aircraft, leaving the Terre Haute facility as a general-aviation only facility.
The southern part of the state is also served by the Louisville International Airport across the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky. The southeastern part of the state is served by the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport also across the Ohio River in Florence Kentucky. Many residents of northwestern Indiana use the two Chicago airports, O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport.
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The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana are I-465, I-469, I-69, I-65, I-94, I-70, I-74, I-64, I-80, I-90, and I-275. The various highways intersecting in and around Indianapolis, along with its historical status as a major railroad hub, and the canals that once crossed Indiana, are the source of the state's motto, the Crossroads of America.
There are also many state highways maintained by the Indiana Department of Transportation. These are numbered according to the same convention as U.S. Highways.
Most Indiana counties use a grid-based system to identify county roads; this system replaced the older arbitrary system of road numbers and names, and (among other things) makes it much easier to identify the sources of calls placed to the 9-1-1 system. Such systems are easier to implement in the glacially flattened northern and central portions of the state. Rural counties in the southern third of the state are less likely to have grids and more likely to rely on unsystematic road names (e.g., Harrison County); there are also counties in the northern portions of the state that have never implemented a grid, or have only partially implemented one. Some counties are also laid out in an almost diamond-like grid system (e.g. Clark, Floyd and Knox Counties). Such a system is also almost useless in those situations as well. Knox County once operated two different grid systems for county roads because the county was laid out using two different survey grids, but has since decided to use road names and combine roads instead.
Notably, the county road grid system of St. Joseph County, whose major city is South Bend, uses perennial (tree) names (i.e. Ash, Hickory, Ironwood, etc.) in alphabetical order for North-South roads and Presidential and other noteworthy names (i.e. Adams, Edison, Lincoln Way, etc.) in alphabetical order for East-West roads. There are exceptions to this rule in downtown South Bend and Mishawaka.
Indiana has over 4,255 railroad route miles, of which 91 percent are operated by Class I railroads, principally CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. Other Class I railroads in Indiana include the Canadian National Railway and Soo Line Railroad, a Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiary, as well as Amtrak. The remaining miles are operated by 37 regional, local, and switching & terminal railroads. The South Shore Line is one of the country's most notable commuter rail systems extending from Chicago to South Bend. Indiana is currently implementing an extensive rail plan that was prepared in 2002 by the Parsons Corporation.[58]
Indiana annually ships over 70 million tons of cargo by water each year, which ranks 14th among all U.S. states. More than half of Indiana's border is water, which includes 400 miles (640 km) of direct access to two major freight transportation arteries: the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway (via Lake Michigan) and the Inland Waterway System (via the Ohio River). The Ports of Indiana manages three major ports which include Burns Harbor, Jeffersonville, and Mount Vernon.[59]
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Indiana is known as the "Brain Bank of the Midwest" as Indiana's colleges and universities attract the fourth largest number of out-of-state students in the nation and the largest out-of-state student population in the midwest.[citation needed] In addition, Indiana is the third best state in the country at keeping high school seniors in-state as Indiana colleges and universities attract 88% of Indiana's college attendees.[60] This exceptional popularity is attributed to the high quality of the research and educational universities located in the state. Indiana universities also lead the nation in the attraction of international students with Purdue University and Indiana University ranked #3 and #17 respectively in the total international student enrollment of all universities in the United States.[61] The state's leading higher education institutions include Purdue University, Indiana State University, Wabash College, DePauw University, Valparaiso University, University of Evansville, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, IPFW, IUPUI, University of Indianapolis, Butler University, Ball State University, University of Southern Indiana, Indiana University, University of Notre Dame, Vincennes University, and Oakland City University are among the many public and private institutions located in the state.
Indiana has a history with auto racing. Indianapolis hosts the Indianapolis 500 mile race over Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every May. The name of the race is usually shortened to "Indy 500" and also goes by the nickname "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." The race attracts over 250,000 people every year making it the largest single day sporting event in the world. The track also hosts the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (NASCAR) and the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix (MotoGP). From 2000 to 2007, it hosted the United States Grand Prix (Formula One).
Indiana has a rich basketball heritage that reaches back to the formative years of the sport itself. Although James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, Indiana is where high school basketball was born. In 1925, Naismith visited an Indiana basketball state finals game along with 15,000 screaming fans and later wrote "Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport." The 1986 film Hoosiers is based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions Milan High School.
Indiana has had great sports success at the collegiate level. Notably, Indiana University has won five NCAA basketball championships, six swimming and diving NCAA championships, and seven NCAA soccer championships and Notre Dame has won 11 football championships. Schools fielding NCAA Division I athletic programs include:
The Hilly Hundred is a bicycle tour which attracts 5,000 cycling enthusiasts each year. The course runs through Greene, Monroe and Owen Counties. The Bands of America and ISSMA marching band competitions take place here, and has many finalist bands including: Avon High School (ranked 7 years in a row), Lawrence Central High School (two-time grand national champion), Carmel High School, Ben Davis High School, and Center Grove High School.
Indiana used to be home to two major military installations, Grissom Air Force Base near Peru (reduced to reservist operations in 1994) and Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, now closed, though the Department of Defense continues to operate a large finance center there.
Current active installations include Air National Guard fighter units at Fort Wayne, and Terre Haute airports (to be consolidated at Fort Wayne under the 2005 BRAC proposal, with the Terre Haute facility remaining open as a non-flying installation). The Army National Guard conducts operations at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana and helicopter operations out of Shelbyville Airport. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division is in the southwest of the state and the Army's Newport Chemical Depot, which is currently heavily involved in neutralizing dangerous chemical weapons stored there, is in the western part of the state. Also, Naval Operational Support Center Indianapolis is home to several Navy Reserve units, a Marine Reserve unit, and a small contingent of active and full-time-support reserve personnel.
Indiana is one of thirteen U.S. states that is divided into more than one time zone. Indiana's time zones have fluctuated over the past century. At present most of the state observes Eastern Time; six counties near Chicago and six near Evansville observe Central Time. Debate continues on the matter.
Before 2006, most of Indiana did not observe daylight saving time (DST). Some counties within this area, particularly Floyd, Clark, and Harrison counties near Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio and Dearborn counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, unofficially observed DST by local custom. Since April 2006 the entire state observes DST. Although DST is supposed to save energy, a 2008 study of billing data before and after the change in 2006 concluded that residential electricity consumption had increased by 1% to 4%, primarily due to extra afternoon cooling.[62]
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| Preceded by Louisiana |
List of U.S. states by date of statehood Admitted on December 11, 1816 (19th) |
Succeeded by Mississippi |
Coordinates: 40°N 86°W / 40°N 86°W
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| Translations: Indiana |
Français (French)
n. - Indiana
Português (Portuguese)
n. - Indiana
Español (Spanish)
n. - Indiana
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
印第安那州
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 印第安那州
한국어 (Korean)
인디애나 (미국 중서부의 주; 주도 Indianapolis; (약) Ind.; 속칭 Hoosier State)
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אינדיאנה
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| Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
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